There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The context of an action significantly influences its moral character and meaning.
This quote emphasizes the importance of context in evaluating the morality and significance of actions. It suggests that the same act can have different implications depending on the circumstances surrounding it, highlighting the nuanced nature of human behavior and ethical considerations.
Themes
CharacterCircumstancesActionsMoralityEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about ethics in leadership, one could say, 'As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated, the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.'
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All quotes βOn the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Why should you row a boat race? Why endure the long months of pain in preparation for a fierce half hour that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all the costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less than a boat race? If a man will give the blood in his body to win the one, will he spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Similar quotes
Philosophers say the Soul is double-faced, her upper face gazes at God all the time and her lower face looks somewhat down, informing the senses; and the upper face, which is the summit of the soul, is in eternity and has nothing to do with time: it knows nothing of time or of body.
Meister EckhartRead
He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.
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Sometimes we exclude things in ourselves in order to be like everybody else around us-our ethnicity, our social backgrounds, our ideas. What kind of world is it that will not allow me to be myself, and is it really good for me to be there? What part of me will die a slow death if I stay?
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My effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith.
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When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were, and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him... For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth.
ParacelsusRead
Ireland unfree shall never be at peace
Patrick PearseRead